Lochness
by Celtic Song17
Summary: The LEP is dealing with a problem in Scotland, Artemis and his associates are taking their place in the world powers, the humans are at war with the People, and their only informant is locked away in a mental ward. Armagedon... eminent. HxT AxM
1. Nessie

Vienna, Austria. September 1, 2010 11:08 AM

Butler had checked the entire block for anything dangerous, but it seemed to already have been done. If he wasn't so sure, he'd have sworn he'd come back in time and made the necessary arrangements prior to his visit. It appeared as though Artemis' associate was as paranoid as he himself was.

Artemis and Butler stepped out of the cold and into a small cafe in North Vienna. Those nearer the door drew back from the cold. Artemis quickly took in the profiles of every attendant in the room and continued to the back where a blond haired teenage girl sat in front of an inactive chess board. Artemis quickly took in the authentically elaborate imperial Romanov coat, white cashmere sweater, and Armani shoes.

She tucked a curl behind her ear and gestured for the two to sit down across from her. Artemis took a seat without hesitation and removed his gloves. Psychologically, a gesture to show that he was confident in his power over the meeting. though neither had ever met in person, both had agreed to meet in a place far from home that would give no advantage to either.

Artemis had never really felt this leery of a meeting before in his life. This girl, Claudia Meduare, had been a challenger on Artemis' website. she'd even played a virtual game of chess with him and kept him up nearly all through the night.

After Artemis had returned home from Hybras and settled with his family again, he'd ceased his criminal acts for the greater good. So, through his need to manipulate and succeed, he began a website where all of the students at St. Bartleby's could log on and compete in chess matches for the top places. Of course, Artemis didn't completely overlook his ability to hack the computers of every person that logged on. His project reached a new elation when a foolish teacher logged on from a main frame computer on campus instead of a laptop. Suddenly, Artemis had access to everything in the school's mainframe.

Not long after the summer holidays started, the website attendants began to include people all around Ireland and quickly spread with the boys as they went on Holiday all over Europe. That's when this girl beat everyone in the running all the way up the charts to challenge the moderator of the website. Artemis, unable to turn down a challenge, took her up on her offer. That one game lasted six hours. Afterward, he had traced her computer, curious as to her level of intelligence. Much to his dismay, however, the laptop proved to be brand new with no meaningful documentation on it what-so-ever.

"You start, Bashkir." she stated simply, her accent untraceable to him. Artemis quickly adopted his Russian mental persona and moved his first piece, careful not to make the same first move as he did when he first challenged this girl. Several moves were made and unmade, creating distress in both teens. Though neither showed it. After a couple of hours, Claudia blew a warm breath into bony hands. Even Artemis had noticed the temperature in the room drop steadily as they played, and the color had visibly risen in her cheeks. It was a bit endearing.

"Check Mate." She said, breaking the two hour silence between them as she moved the last piece. Artemis stared for a moment at the board, then at her, utter awe in his face. she smiled at him slightly, then pulled a small box out of hr coat pocket. She slid it across the table to him and wrapped her scarf around her neck.

"Arrivederci, and a happy Birthday to you, Stefan." She said, then left the cafe in a gust of freezing air. Inside were two green shamrock cuff clips nestled onto a small piece of paper. He gave Butler a confused look and, after tugging the paper out from under them, showed Butler the cuff clips. Butler examined them closely while Artemis unfolded the note.

_Artemis,_

_A very well played game, but a hacker can be traced, no matter how precise the break in. _

The words were written in a very professional cursive. Clearly she had the confidence to show her handwriting, and the words screamed for a decent challenge. Artemis crushed the paper into his fist tightly.

"This is far from over, Butler." He growled.

"Of course, Artemis," Butler replied as they left the cafe, "After all, it isn't Stefan's birthday."

--

Commander Trouble Kelp was a well renowned officer of the Lower Elements Police with countless decorations and high honors. At the moment, the proud Commander was locked in fierce battle... with the upper left drawer of his desk. A difficultly inconspicuous Major Short stood in the doorway, leaning on the frame and trying her damnedest not to laugh out loud. After a while, she had run out of her clichéd luck.

"War wages on, eh Commander?" She asked through her laughter. he shot up with a start and slammed his head into the underside of his desk with a resonating bang! He cried out as he got to his feet and fell into his chair. He rubbed the back of his head, his fingers getting a bit lost in his out of regulation length hair and pale blue sparks dancing around his skull and neck.

"I don't get it, Major. The drawer opened just fine when I opened in this evening, now it won't open for anything." He said. Holly smiled.

"Julius prized that drawer. he thought he was the only one who knew how to open it. I guess he never thought I'd matter." Holly walked around to the drawer and fell to her knees to reach it. She grabbed the handle, thrust the drawer up with all of her strength, thn to the right, and threw all her weight into it. With a simple tug, the drawer slid open on it's wheels. Holly gave Trouble a look of smug satisfaction.

"I hate you." He said with a smile. He reached into the drawer as she got to her feet. Foaly's face appeared on the opposite wall as he paged the Commander.

"Were you planning on having that situation in Scotland handled before dawn, Commander?" He asked.

"Do you talk to every Commander like and understudy, Foaly?" Trouble responded. Holly smiled.

"What situation in Scotland?" Holly asked, looking between the two.

"Just a bunch of tourists in the Loch Ness aqua tunnel.It's supposed to have been blocked off because of instability. If it surfaces again, we'll be faced with another mass mind wipe. I don't think I've been commander long enough for the council to overlook a mass mind wipe with a simple reprimand. They'll chew me out until there's nothing left." Holly sniggered.

"I'll do what I can, Commander." Holly said. Trouble looked back at her.

"Who said I needed you to do anything, Short?" Holly blinked, momentarily unable to think of anything. Trouble smiled. "Get your gear, Major. I'll get rid of teh crowd, and you do what you can to stop that tunnel from going topside."

"Yes sir," Holly responded, "But I'm driving."


	2. reluctant Allies

_Depending on the length of Holly and Artemis' scenes, I will either combine one of each into a single chapter, or, in this case, give each character a specific chapter. In all honesty, Holly and Artemis will communicate often, but I don't know for sure how long before they actually meet in person. _

_WARNING/PACIFICATION: For those who agree to the idea of AxM pairing, that will be in here. To pacify those who hate Minerva, (seriously, find a real human being to hate), she does some pretty bitchy things in this story before they end up together. As for the HxT people, WELCOME! this will fit your taste and, surprise! it's in character! I'm done now. Enjoy!_

"Epitome."

"E-P-I-TO-M-E. Meaning the prime example of or a brief overview of written works from the Greek." Myles answered without a second's hesitation.

"Very Good." Artemis nodded his approval. He'd grown to take a lot of pride in the twins over the last three years. Myles was eager to learn as much as he could, and Artemis found himself almost just as eager to teach as it seemed.

They trudged through the green hills of Ireland with his younger brother, simply enjoying the rare warm sun as it followed a recent downpour of rain. Once, Artemis had been pleased that there was so much dreary rain in Ireland, but now he found himself longing for sunlight every once and a while. Not as though he'd live in the American south east, but to simply feel the sun sometimes. He blamed the magic he'd once had. It'd been three years since he had relinquished the magic, but it still left him with odd pulls to the moon, insomnia, and a longing for the outdoors and nature.

Myles picked at the sleeve of his jacket in a very Artemis manor. He'd shown a great interest in becoming just as intelligent as his older brother and had, to Artemis' great relief, ceased calling him a simple-toon. Myles and Beckett had lost the infant blond hair, to be replaced with a very Angeline-like red color. The sound of Artemis' phone ringing broke his momentary blissful silence.

"Artemis." He answered. He'd only recently given his number to other associates of his father's business. He had to appear as though he were planning on taking the business, no matter how little interest Artemis held in common marketing. "Thank-You, Butler." He hung up the phone and stopped, Myles imitating him. He looked at his little brother.

"Mother says that the Paradizo's have arrived and that she would like us home to clean up before the party." Myles' expression changed to that of excitement and he took off towards the house as fast as his little legs could carry him. Artemis smiled and continued towards the house at his normal pace. Minerva Paradizo. He hadn't found a moment to meet with her or even speak with her since his return home. Well, he had found the time. After all, he'd found the time to design a website that now had hits all over Europe and into parts of Asia, meet with his best challenger in person, and teach his brother the basics of several major languages. It was she that had never found the time.

He let his mind wander back to that day in Italy when he'd seen her. He had noticed that she hadn't panicked or run with the crowd, but he should have seen the signs that these reactions screamed. He'd just been too distracted by the demon. He would never admit to himself that it was the distraction that she and the Spanish driver posed. Now that he thought back on it, she'd been very young looking. He almost felt wrong to have seen her that way. He had to remind himself that she was several months older than him now. Just as well, he almost physically slapped himself when he remembered the Spanish woman. Sure, Minerva had been a bit striking for a twelve year old, but the driver had been a grown woman, and now that his head was stable he knew that fatal diseases were not the most horrible trial a body could endure. No, that was hormones, and the driver could only have been able to distract someone in hormonal struggle.

Artemis walked up the drive to see a very nice rented Porsche 911 Turbo painted in sleek black and a nine-year-old pouring over it, wide-eyed five year old twins at his side. There was a young woman with a very familiar Imperial Russian coat over an Emerald sweater. Her face was hidden with locks of long blond curls as her fingers flew over the keypad of her cell phone.

"Well, well Ma'amselle Meduare. Not only did you hack into my computer system, but now you've seen fit to trespass." He said, a wicked humor in his voice. She looked up, a pair of very over-alert green eyes met his. It took only an instant before she had placed his connection to that Alias, but even that instant was, in Artemis' opinion, to delayed. He thought about the time changes, but it was late afternoon in Ireland and only about an hour later in France. So, her sleep schedule was not off. Perhaps Mademoiselle Claudia Meduare was a more widely used alias, and Minerva Paradizo was often in situations that called for an alias.

"One does not complain when hypocrisy is the crime at hand. do not complain because I was better prepared than the 'great Artemis Fowl'." Artemis scowled, her delayed initial reaction still on his mind. As well as those curls...

"She's become almost as powerful as you are, hasn't she, Artemis?" Butler asked as they walked away. Artemis stopped and looked back for a moment, a smirk on his face.

"No, Butler. I don't think I could be as powerful as she is now, no matter how hard I tried," Butler arched an eyebrow and Artemis smirked up at him, "I don't have a body like that." He smiled as he walked away.

"And that's when you know Artemis fowl the Second is officially a teenager." Butler mumbled to himself as he walked towards the house after the eighteen year old.


End file.
